Research Study on Violence against Dalit Women in Different States of India by studying the Sources

155 Pages·2016·6.98 MB·English

Research Study on Violence against Dalit Women in
Different States of India by studying the Sources of
Materials that are Available and Conducting
Interview of the Perpetrators, Victims and Witnesses

A Report Submitted by
Centre for Alternative Dalit Media (CADAM)
New Delhi

Supported by
National Commission for Women (NCW)
New Delhi
CONTENTS

Acknowledgement …………………………………………………………………….....................5--6
Chapter - I INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………....................7--13

1.1 Background
1.2 Statement of the problem
1.3 Rationale of the study
1.4 Objectives of the Study
1.5 Research Sample and Methodology
1.6 Organization of the report
1.7 Limitations of the Study

Chapter – II REVIEW OF LITERATURE…………………………………………................14--24

2.1 Brief History
2.2 Witch hunting in India
2.3 Summary

Chapter – III SOCIO-ECONOMIC & DEMOGRAPHIC PROFILE…………….............25--33

3.1 Population and Distribution
3.2 Religion
3.3 Social category
3.4 Educational Status
3.5 Occupation
3.6 Income Level
3.7 Water and Sanitation Facilities
3.8 Household Facilities
3.9 Assets

Chapter – IV WITCH-HUNTING: BELIEFS AND PRACTICES…………………...........34--43
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Findings of the study
4.2.1 Perception of Witchcraft
4.2.2 Perception of Respondents Regarding the Manifestation of Witchcraft
4.2.3 Perception on special occasion of witch attack
4.2.4 Perception on the Caste of Witches
4.2.5 Reason and Sources of treatment
4.3 Summary

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Chapter – V INCIDENCE AND VIOLENCE OF WITCH HUNTING AND ITS IMPACT
ON SOCIO ECONOMIC AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELLBEING............ 44--53

5.1 Introduction
5.2 Findings of the study
5.2.1 Range and Types of violence against women accused of witchcraft
5.2.2 Incidences of witch violence
5.2.3 Identification and Activities of witch incidences
5.2.4 Socio-economic status of women accused of being a witch
5.2.5 Types of Action Taken against perpetrators
5.2.6 Impact on socio economic and psychological well-being of accused
women
5.3 Summary

Chapter – VI WITCH AND WITCH PRACTICES: AN ILLOGICAL MYTH………......54--61

6.1 Introduction
6.2 Findings of the study
6.2.1 Reason for prevalence of witch hunting
6.2.2 Intention of Ojhas
6.2.3 Role of family/community/caste, panchayat, enforcement agencies in
preventing /abetting these practices
6.2.3 Remedies for Elimination of eliminate the violence against women
accused of Witchcraft
6.3 Summary

Chapter – VII INSTITUTIONAL, SOCIAL MECHANISMS AND POLICY INITIATIVES……...62--67

7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 Policy Level Initiatives
7.2 Findings of the study
7.2.1 Laws and Legal awareness
7.2.2 Assessing the Action of Police on Witch Hunting Cases
7.2.3 Severity of punishment
7.2.4 Awareness Meetings
7.2.5 Remedies
7.3 Summary

Chapter – VIII CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS…………………………...........68--75

REFERENCES ………………………………………………………………………………………………...........76--78

ANNEXURE-I- Data ob Violecne against Dalit women..................................79--82
ANNEXURE-II Caste Studies and Interviews…………………………………...................83--139
ANNEXURE-II Press news responded by the research team…………………….......142--140
ANNEXURE-III Questionaie ………………………………………………………………………........141--155

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ACKNOWLEDGHMENT

With abundance of gratitude for the support of National Commission of Women for
support to research study on ‘Violence against Dalit Women in Different States of India by
Studying the Sources of Materials that are Available and Conducting Interviews of the
Perpetrators, Victims and Witnesses’, we express our gratitude to activists of Rashtriya
Dalit Mahila Andolan and Dalit and Adivasi women leader who have been active at the
grassroots for many years working for empowerment of women, education of girl children,
land rights of Dalit women and labourers ,livelihoods, skill development, health and
nutrition, forest conservation, forest rights ,agriculture, horticulture and so on. We are
deeply indebted to them for their time for collecting the cases, visiting the remote
villages, meeting the victims, witnesses, and perpetrators, law enforcement agencies and
discussing in detail on the incidence of witch hunting, violence against SC, ST and
minorities through the accusation of being a witch.
We are especially indebted to Ms. Chunni Kumari, Ms.Neelam Besra, Mr. Sunil Mishra once
again for data organisation, Sumedha Boudh for conducting some of the most interesting
focus discussions generating insights in the problem after meeting the victims of the
allegations. We could not have the report , if we did not interviews for case studies
conducted in the villages by Mr.Shankar Dass, Mr.Puran Singh, Mr.Satya, Ms. Neelam Besra,
Ms. Promila, Ms. Radha, Ms. Vandna, Ms.Khushbu, Ms. Kanti Kumari,Mr. Jyoti Raj,
Ms.Savitri Devi, Mr.Sanjiv, Ms. Putul, Ms Tarkeswari Negi and Ms. Chander Nigam. We are
grateful for all fellows of CADAM for their dedicated work in conducting interviews and
collecting case from the villages and cities. Once these cases were collected, the task
was there for conducting a content analysing for preparing the tables under the
supervision of Mr. Sukant Chandra Behera, Team Lead, Programme Development and
Implementation, NACDOR.
Simple tables tell us a lot, but in order to have a cogent understanding of the data and
findings in the table and description of the table is very important along with narrating
the context of the table, assessing the policy initiatives, report on the legal provisions,
awareness programme, bringing out the stories of pain and anguish, feeling them and then
drafting the recommendations as per the guidelines. The first version of the report
keeping in consideration all the parameters was done by the Ms. Madhusmita Mohanty,
Consultant, Reasearch and Documentation, CADAM and NACDOR. We are indebted to Mr.
Ashok Bharti, Chairman of National Confederation of Dalit Organisations (NACDOR) who
conceived the programme for eliminating violence against Dalit women through
eliminating ignorance and then then through producing knowledge products that are
helpful in building policy for eliminating violence against Dalit and Adivasi women through
accusing them of being a Witch.
Common sense wisdom for debunking the idea that some could be witch was apt when an
NGO leader said ‘Ojha is Bojha’ considering the fact that some of the psychological
problems or illness that could not be treated by him or some of the deaths that were not
explained by him were attributed to witch in order to give and answer. We are indebted
to NGOs leaders and police personnel who cooperated in the investigation giving out a
clear picture of their understanding on the issue sharing their reports and experience in
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dealing with the incidence of violence through witch-hunting. Panchayat leaders are most
important as those who have been negotiating and discussing the issue emerging out of
allegations and resultant violence on women during the data collection for the report.
CADAM research expresses gratitude for their time in the interviews that has contributed
in the generation of recommendations for this research. We once again express our
gratitude to Ashok Bharti, Chairman NACDOR for giving technical advice on the report.
Acknowledgement is due to Mr. Sukanta Behera, Program Lead of NACDOR who reviewed
the report for incorporating the suggestions of National Commission of Women and
finalising the report with critical inputs from Dr. Mukhtar Alam, Advocacy Coordinator,
NACDOR, Mr.Rajesh Upadhyay, Executive Director, CADAM.
Ms.Rajni Tilak
Project Direct Director, Sectrectary
Centre for Alternative Dalit Media (CADAM)

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CHAPTER – I

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background
The situation of Dalit women in India needs special attention. They are one of the largest
socially segregated groups anywhere in the world, and make up 2 per cent of the world’s
total population. Dalit women constitute half of 200 million Dalit populations, and 16.3 of
the total Indian female population. Dalit women are placed at the absolute bottom of the
social hierarchy as they face systemic and structural discrimination threefold: as Dalits, as
poor, and as women. The caste system, estimated to affect 260 million people globally,
declares Dalit women to be intrinsically impure and ‘untouchable‘, which sanctions social
exclusion and exploitation. The vast majority of Dalit women are poor; they are landless
wage labourers and lack access to basic amenities and entitlements. They are subjugated
by patriarchal structures, both in the general community and within their own family.
Although, the traditional taboos are similar for both Dalit men and women, but Dalit
women bear the burden more often. Moreover, men are dominant in Dalit communities.
Dalit women are subjected to inhumane living conditions and human rights violations;
discrimination and violence systematically deny them opportunities, choices and freedoms
in all spheres of life. This undermines not only their dignity and self-respect, but also their
rights to equality and development. Dalit women also have less power within the Dalit
movement itself. Women are active in large numbers in the movement but most
leadership positions in the organizations, local bodies and associations have until now
been held by men. Dalit women are discriminated in economic, socio-cultural, political
and legal spheres. Such deprivation and discrimination against Dalit women presents clear
evidence of widespread exploitation and violence against these women subordinated in
terms of power relations to men in a patriarchal society, as also against their communities
based on caste.

Violence against women is the most pervasive yet under recognized human rights violation
in the world. This includes domestic violence, polygamy, sexual harassment, rape,
molestation, kidnapping, abduction, homicide, physical and mental torture and trafficking
etc. As the National Commission for Women has commented, “in the commission of
offences against… scheduled caste [Dalit] women the offenders try to establish their
authority and humiliate the community by subjecting their women to indecent and
inhuman treatment, including sexual assault, parading naked, using filthy language,
etc.”.1 The National Crime Records Bureau data records reveal that more than four Dalit
women are raped every day in India.2 According to the UN Declaration on the elimination
of violence against Women 1993, VAW encompasses, but is not limited to physical, sexual,
and psychological violence occurring in the family, including battering, sexual abuse of
female children in the household, dowry related violence, marital rape, female genital
mutilation and other traditional practices harmful to women. Hence, violence, which
serves as a crucial social mechanism to maintain Dalit women’s subordinate position in

1 National Commission for Women, Women of Weaker Sections: Socio-Economic Development of Scheduled Caste
Women, New Delhi, 1996, p.33
2 National Crime Records Bureau, Govt. of India. http://www.ncrb.gov.in/
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society, is the core outcome of gender-based inequalities shaped and intensified by the
caste system.

Dalit /Scheduled caste (SC) women, in India’s highly patriarchal and caste-based society,
bear the triple burden of caste, class, and gender. Being positioned at the lowest social
order of Indian society, Scheduled caste women suffer from multiple forms of
discrimination, including lack of education, economic disadvantages, social
disempowerment, domestic violence, political invisibility, and sexual oppression. In
contravention of both national laws and international human rights standards that prohibit
any physical, sexual or psychological violence against women, varying forms of violent acts
specifically targeting SC women are occurring on a large scale across India today. Witch-
hunting is one of the heinous forms of violence that Dalit women are subjected to in India.
Through protective measures are there in place to punish those who commit violence
against women in cases of witchcraft allegations, but they are still ineffective to protect
most women accused of witchcraft. With this background, the present study makes an
attempt to explore the extent and nature of violence against Dalit women in the name of
witch-hunt in Bihar, Odisha and Jharkhand.

1.2 Statement of the problem
"Witch craft is seen as a manifestation of evil believed to come from a human source"
(Kgatla et. al. 2003:5). Hence, accusations of being a 'witch' refers to the alleged
possession by an evil spirit in a women (or much less often, a man) giving her supernatural
powers to alter the course of nature. Likewise, witch-hunting is a 'search' for suspected
witches, who are believed to use witchcraft to harm people. After being accused, they are
tortured and treated inhumanly by their communities and often by relatives. 'Witch-
hunting' could be seen as one of the worst forms of cultural violence against women.
Witchcraft in India is still part of the deep rooted traditional rural culture of India.
Violence against women who are accused of being witches is generally present and
pervasive. This violence is so severe and dangerous; it results in the death of women who
are accused. Hundreds of women in India’s conservative villages have been killed or
tortured after being accused of witchcraft. Those who survive are shunned and live in poor
conditions. The accused women, primarily from Adivasi (tribal) and Dalit populations are
often victims of land disputes or gender discrimination. A combination of poor health
facilities, illiteracy, and government corruption reinforces the customary influence of
Ojhas, traditional healers who also serve as mediators in village disputes. As important
religious, political and social figures, ojha legitimize witch hunts by confirming the
supposed involvement of witchcraft in any ill fortune.

In a country which ranks at 129 out of 146 in gender inequality index with a score of 0.6,
the highest in South Asia, each year an estimated 200 women are killed as witches in rural
India. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, over 1791 women had died
between 2001 and 2010 on account of black magic and witchcraft. According to the
National Crime Record Bureau (NCRB), 175 cases of witchcraft-related murders were
reported in 2008 from various states, including Jharkhand, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh,
Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.3 As per a study by an NGO, more than 2,500

3 Ibid.
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women were killed in the past 15 years in India after being accused of practicing
witchcraft.4 There is also research evidence suggesting that there has been a disturbing
rise in Witch hunting cases in 2011. The rate of conviction in cases of crime against women
is the lowest in India (26.9 %) when compared to other crimes and adding to this crisis is
the fact that there is no specific law in India to fight against witch hunting. Witch hunting
cases are currently registered under sections 302 (murder), 320 (grievous hurt),
351(Assault), 354 (Assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty),
364a (kidnapping for ransom) and 503 (criminal intimidation) (Ghosh, 2012; WGHR, 2012;
HDR, 2011; NCRB, 2011; NAWO, 2006).

According to Rebecca Vernon, the editor of the Cornell Law Journal “Over the last fifteen
years, an estimated 2,500 Indian women have been killed because they were
'witches...Witch hunts are most common among poor rural communities with little access
to education and health services, and longstanding beliefs in witchcraft. When an
individual gets sick or harm befalls the community, the blame falls not upon a virus or
crop disease, but upon an alleged witch’’. Further, the Institute of Development Studies,
reported that "Poor, low-caste women are easy targets for naming/branding (as a
witch)...Women who are widowed, infertile, possess 'ugly' features or are old,
unprotected, poor or socially ostracized are easy targets." said professor Kanchan Mathur,
from the Institute of Development Studies – India, in a recent 2009 report. Women accused
of witchcraft have been physically abused, ostracized and driven from their homes.

The practice of witch hunting in India is more prominent among the socially educationally
excluded Dalits and Adivasis who usually inhabit the secluded areas within the country
characterized by limited access to livelihood opportunities. The practice of witchcraft in
the state of Odisha, Jharkhand and Bihar is present and pervasive despite having
protective measures and acts in place. "The state of Jharkhand is deviating from
International law obligations requiring India to address and prevent the problem of witch-
hunting, which has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of women."5 Furthermore
“International courts mandate that this Court (High Court of Judicature, Jharkhand State,
India) must take action to provide effective judicial remedies for violations of these
integral human rights," the appeal continues. Four states in India have approved
protective anti-witchcraft laws, but they are still ineffective to protect most women
accused of witchcraft. Police protections, courtroom decisions and legal representations
need much more improvement. Education on the issues surrounding violence of women,
superstitions and belief, along with greater understanding of equal human rights for
women are essential to marking improvements.

Moreover, the situation of Dalit is very critical. Due to patriarchal and caste based society
and superstition they face multiple discrimination. Without comprehensive and carefully

4 See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/nhrc-seeks-actiontaken-report-on-assam-witchhunting-
cases/792480/#sthash.LkdC4cKi.dpuf
5 Cornell Law School International Human Rights Clinic, petition to the High Court of Judicature, Ranchi,
Jharkhand State, India – January 2010

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documented research on violence against women in cases of witchcraft allegations, it is
impossible to know whether Dalit women are experiencing more violence in their
household or community, or whether they are reporting it more often. In the absence of
proper research, it is difficult to compare and assess the scope of violence as well as the
effectiveness of programmes to end it. Therefore, the study made an attempt to assess
the violence against Dalit women (VADW) in cases of witchcraft allegation. The study is
descriptive in nature. It explores the extent and nature of violence against Dalit women in
the name of witch-hunt and their perception to the violence.

1.3 Rationale of the study
The focus of the paper is to analyze the phenomenon of 'witch hunting' in Odisha,
Jharkhand and Bihar as a manifestation of violence against women. The justification is
that women of all communities are facing violence but Dalit women are facing different
forms of violence in domestic and social fronts besides their lower socio-economic and
educational status.

India is a multi-religious, multiethnic and multi-cultural country. In terms of human
development indicators, it ranks 127 out of 177 countries (UNDP 2004). However,
patriarchal system norms are also deeply embedded and women still face discrimination at
various levels. The constitution of India states that no citizen shall be discriminated or
deprived of the right of equality and equal protection of law. But, the fact remains that
this is an illusion for many socially excluded women who are victimized by society.
Incidents of violence against women are a normal feature of life. Rape incidents have also
increased and witch killing in indigenous communities are also another form of violence
against women in India (Kelkar 1992). The Indian government has reported that from
dowry harassment nearly 6,000 women a year die and many more are mutilated in India
(Reddy 2002).

Some empirical studies have also highlighted the incidents of witch hunting as a violation
of women's rights and gender disparity. These studies show that women are vulnerable;
especially widows, single, poor and socially marginalised women. The absence of specific
laws to address this social evil has made it impossible to punish the perpetrators and seek
justice for the victims of such abuses. However, there is a need to have a more
theoretically informed analysis of this phenomenon as well. This research paper will
analyze the actual ground situation with special reference to the states of Odisha,
Jharkhand and Bihar. This study seeks to contribute to a deeper understanding of the
phenomena of witch-hunting by studying cases and information. The study would allow
investigation of the significance of culture vis-à-vis other factors, which may be the causes
for the prevalence/spread of 'witch hunting' in India.

1.4 Objectives of the Study
The major objective of the study is to understand and conceptualize 'witch-hunting' as a
form of violence against women in the contemporary era. For this, the study attempts to
investigate the current situation of violence against women in the name of witch-hunting
especially focusing on Dalit women. The specific objectives are:

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